Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-04-09

spp.isslsoe q sls.asioliy dasise o sisk.
sssnsh century end nom NE bsGiunins.
One cannot red this volume, In which srs
traced % clearly the different steps end
stages through which electrical science hes
rushed, "irom the rubbing Of q BIT Of amber,
70 the telegraph, the telephone the electric
light, and the electric railway" without
fully agreeing with the author that Il eoeo
ias % 70 justly the most ex.ravasant pssiss
slowed upon himself" A. the same time
thas one must marvel q the ingenuity and
fertility o. msn's mind, the connectsd HE
tory Of this science shows perhaps more
belongs the prsisa Edison 10 only The end
link, . tt were, Of Q long chain II expert.
mentsrs and speculators, each ono depending
ON his predeceseorS the result Of their labora,
possible without IL cause scarcely even 10
any one country deserving Of more credit
than another; for all have contributed 10 the
forging Of the chain. The most fundamen.
tally important discoveries Of the Lest hun.
grown and around which they all clusssr,
bslong respectively 70 Italy, which gave w
Galvani and Volts u Denmark, which pro-
duced Oerst0d TO France where Ampero
was born, and 70 England, the home Of
Michael FAraday.
1t may be that this conclusion 10 not alto.
gether agreeable to our American vanity,
which somehow or other has tried 70 monop.
olize the great bulk Of glory In the matter Of
electricity. But this 10 altogether the result
Of ignorance, such - . fair and full account
like Prof. Mendcnhalls cannot fail 10 correct.
II We are distinguished In the matter as oil,
contributions TO electrical science, bu: rather
to the art, the application OF the science to
commercial and practical purposes
Take for example, the telegraph, which
II populsrly claimed - wholly Ar9srican. A.
early - 1882 Russian, Baron Schilling, had
. system Of needle telegraph In satisfactory
operation. A little later two Germans, Gauss
and Weber, established . successfully operat-
ing line ut Gottingen. In 1887 another Ger.
man, Steinheil had constructed several miles
OF telegraph from Munich 70 various points
10 the vicinity, which were officially sanc-
toned by the government, and were un.
doubtedly the first electric telegraph wires
erected for commercial purposes Tho needle
telegraph, be 1t remem bered, IL tho one still
the ocean csbleA the first working model
OF Morses telegraph wss completed In 1886,
whose chief popularity aud improvement
was the recording instrument he invented.
II WAS not till lsil, however, that his export.
mental line, with underground wires from
Washington to Baltimore WAS built 80 that
the claim to priority Is certainly not ours
Much less is the claim to originality in ahy
important features OF the telegraph. AsProf.
Mendenhsll frankly confessss: 'In the Morse
telegraph are found, the battery; for which
credit must be given primarily 70 Volta, and
then to Daniell, who In 1896 devised . battery
nearly constant In it, streng gth-an essential
requisite to its application to the telegraph
the key, or transmitter, which, except In dc.
tails OF construction, s practically that In use
since experiments on electricity were begun
the receiving instrument Of which the essen.
tial feature Is the electro magnet due primo.
riIy toSturgeon, but modified and improved Il
% - TO be available for this work BY Henry
the relay, By meanR Of which the local cur.
ront In put in operation, which was used by
Henry and also BY Wheststone; the line wire
suspended on poles-s method first practically
used by DR.. w. O'Shsughnessy ct Calcutta
In 1889"
The explanations given in this little book
| Of the principles and application Of elsotrica
| science, from Galvani's bastsry down b the
| electric light, telephone. and electric motor
are - interesting and - clear - = the his
tory Of their invention and deveaopusae ]
am sure that know more about the whole
subject since reading its two hundred end
twenty-five pages than I ever did before
| And 1t isa subject on which no one wants aAt
noone ought TO be wholly ignorant In this -
OF electricity. l therefore adviao everybody
other one published at the same time .,
thorough, 20 reliable, 10 interesting, and y
practically Satisfactory to the general reader
/ UNCAs.